Lovers in law (2 page)

Undaunted, I smoothed down my
skirt and fastened my jacket. Although I can get by just fine on
brains alone, I often give them a helping hand by dressing to
impress. Usually I’d go for businesslike designer suits and
low-heeled shoes but I got the feeling that I’d need to go the
extra mile on this case.

No matter how hard-bitten and
cynical a man pretends to be, a tight-fitting skirt, scooped
neckline and high stilettos always swings legal opinion in my
favour.

And in my experience, no man
expects a beautiful woman to be intelligent as well.

So win-win.

The clerks’ office was buzzing at
that time in the morning with barristers rushing off to court.
Before I could tell anyone I’d arrived I bumped into a junior
barrister I’d met on a case the year before. He’d tried his luck
back then. Invited me to dinner and made it very obvious he was
interested. He had the looks and was used to sweet-talking a jury
so he’d thought I’d be a pushover.

Only he hadn’t known my golden rule
about never playing that close to home.

For old times’ sake, he gave it
another go.

“There’s a new club opening in the
West End this Friday. I have VIP tickets if you’re interested.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I have
plans.”

“Another time then?”

“Thanks but no thanks.” He couldn’t
quite get his head around the refusal so I added, “I’m seeing
someone.”

“Serious?”

“Engaged,” I lied and smiled at his
disappointment.

“What are you doing here?” he
asked, but before I could answer, a commanding voice reverberated
down the corridor. My companion blanched.

“Where the hell is that damned
woman?” the man demanded, drawing nearer. “She was due fifteen
minutes ago. Someone call the solicitors and find out why she’s not
turned up.”

Guessing I was the damned woman, I
rounded on the voice just as its owner strode into sight, ready to
give him the sharp edge of my tongue.

But the words died in my throat and
I took a step backwards

When Mike had told me about Radford
Byrne, he’d left out the most important detail.

The man was quite simply
gorgeous.

Not the ordinary, drop dead, kind
of gorgeous.

I’m talking the melt your bones
with his big, blue eyes gorgeous. The brooding, mean and moody,
beast between the sheets type of a guy. And with the kind of body
that makes you just want to lie down and say,

Yes please. Fuck me right now. Any
way you like.

My voice caught in my throat.

When my clerk had told me
Brindley & Ellis were sending a replacement solicitor, he’d
left out the most important detail.

This woman was quite simply
gorgeous.

Not the ordinary, strutting down
the catwalk kind of gorgeous.

I’m talking the drive you
insane with lust kind of gorgeous. The hot, hungry-mouthed tigress
between the sheets type of woman. And with the kind of body that
makes you want to pin her to the bed, rip off her clothes and
say,

I want to fuck you right now. Any
way you like.

She rounded on me, her startling,
green eyes flashing furiously with righteous indignation. My cock
hardened at the thought of that kind of aggression in my bed.

“For your information, I’ve been
here fifteen minutes,” she said, “talking to John.”

John quaked when I looked at him,
although it hurt to tear my eyes away from this woman. John
obviously had the hots for her too and I wondered whether there was
any history between them. I hoped not. I didn’t make a habit of
following in lesser men’s shoes.

“Perhaps you should have made
yourself known to my clerk instead of gossiping with junior
counsel,” I said.

“And perhaps you should have
checked before shouting the odds about that damned woman.”

Her full lips pursed, glistening
with deep red lipstick; the kind that leaves kiss-marks across your
chest and you never want to wash them off.

“Well you’re here now.” I didn’t
offer an apology because I quite liked the way anger sat with her.
“And you don’t look anything like Mike.”

The permafrost melted slightly and
she half smiled. “That’s a relief,” she said. “He’s six foot two,
muscular and very hairy.”

Whereas this woman was tall,
curvaceous and classy with long brunette hair and even longer legs.
My favourite brand of sexy.

And intelligent too, which was
never a disadvantage.

“I hear Mike’s had an accident,” I
said, thinking that, whatever had happened, it had been a happy
accident for me.

“He’s broken his leg,” she
confirmed. “He’s not so fast on his feet right now.”

“Neither are you by the looks of
it.”

I nodded toward her black
patent-leather shoes with the high, high heels that accentuated her
long, long legs.

In my fantasy, she kept the
stilettos on while I fucked her.

“I’m not here because of how fast I
can run,” she said. Again the anger flashed. I’d wounded her pride
and she didn’t like it. “You need help putting this case together
and I’m the best my office has.”

She held out her hand to shake
mine. Her nails were long and polished red. They’d look so sexy
clenched around my cock.

“I’m Allie Lawless,” she said.

It figured. She looked like a
no-boundaries kind of woman.

“I won’t make the obvious joke
about it being the perfect name for a lawyer,” I said.

“What? Allie?”

Funny as well as sexy.

“Short for Alison, I assume.”

“Allegra,” she corrected me.
“Italian for cheerful. Although being unnecessarily shouted at this
early in the morning doesn’t make me very cheerful at all.”

“Touché.”

Fearless as well as Lawless. I was
liking her more by the second.

John and the office full of clerks
had watched this exchange open mouthed, unused to seeing me taken
to task outside a court room – or in it for that matter. Rather
than prolong the floorshow I ordered coffee and told Allie to
follow me. In retrospect, I should have walked behind her so I
could see that perfect arse of hers wiggling down the corridor but
everyone’s allowed one mistake.

I opened the door to my room
and let her go through first, catching a waft of her sensual, heady
perfume. I imagined the ghost of that fragrance trapped on warm
sheets first thing in a morning as I turned over and buried my face
in her hair.

She stopped and looked
around, her eyes falling immediately on the Zeus Development case
files, stacked on a long table under the window. I’d already
catalogued them into different piles of witness statements, expert
reports and technical data, and knew them inside out. My case
preparations were nothing, if not thorough.

“You’re incredibly organised,”
Allie said and I told myself I heard admiration in her voice.

“It saves time and wins cases.”

“Mike makes fun of my obsession
with tidy paperwork,” she admitted and gave the first genuine smile
of the morning.

It was breathtaking. A wide, sexy
grin that lit up her eyes and made her whole body sparkle.

Certain parts of me
sparkle
d too.

“You need to show me how you work,”
she continued. “I don’t want to file something in the wrong
place.”

“So Mike told you I tore him off a
strip for misplacing a report,” I guessed.

“He mentioned it.”

The tweak of a smile at the corner
of her full lips told me her assignment to this case had come with
a health warning. We’d already got off on the wrong foot so I
needed to watch my step.

I showed her where to set up
her laptop and she dropped her bag onto a chair. As she slipped off
her jacket, the red silk of her blouse stretched tight across her
breasts for a moment. Not that I was staring, but I made out the
shape of bows on her bra straps and decided they’d be red
too.

Against black lace.

I couldn’t decide whether I
preferred to imagine her in matching panties or in no panties at
all, but I’d give myself time to think about that one
later.

My clerk arrived and set a coffee
tray in the centre of my desk. Allie helped herself and, when she
sat down, she crossed her long legs gracefully. Her tight skirt
rode up her thighs which were shadowed by sheer black stockings and
just begging to be touched.

By now I was struggling to focus
and knew I needed to start thinking with the part of my brain
furthest away from my overactive libido. Usually it was easy to
separate business and pleasure but this woman broke down all of my
defences. I had to start thinking and acting like a lawyer before
things got out of hand.

“I might be useful to start with a
few ground rules,” I therefore said, battling against the very real
distraction those long, slender legs represented. “I’ll expect
complete dedication to the case.”

“Obviously.” Allie frowned that I’d
ever doubted it.

“And that your work will be of the
highest standard.”

“You won’t have any
complaints.”

I didn’t have any so far. Far from
it.

“And at the risk of stating the
obvious, it’ll involve long hours and possibly working at
weekends,” I went on.

She didn’t turn a hair. “Whatever
it takes.”

I looked at her for a long moment,
taking time to absorb every detail of the way her lips glistened
with coffee and the tendril of hair that had fallen forward and
disappeared invitingly into her cleavage.

But I’d been taught that it’s rude
to stare and dragged my eyes away.

“In my experience, it’s not the
lawyer who objects to putting in the long hours,” I said. “It’s
their other halves.”

Her green eyes narrowed as she
looked at me over the rim of her coffee cup. “Don’t worry, I’m not
in the habit of letting my personal life interfere with my work,”
she said, dodging my unasked question. “I’ll approach this case
with the same level of professionalism as you. It’ll be a priority.
I assume that’s the assurance you’re looking for.”

“That doesn’t answer my
question.”

“I wasn’t aware you’d asked
one.”

She was getting riled now and her
breath came harder. A vein pulsed in her throat, drawing my
attention and I imagined what it would be like to kiss that soft,
honey-gold skin. I knew she’d taste sweet and hot.

“Are you in a relationship?” I
asked, being as direct as she wanted.

“What’s it to do with this
case?”

“I appear to have touched a
nerve.”

“Not at all. I simply don’t see why
my personal life is relevant to Zeus Developments.”

“Because I don’t want some
love-sick Romeo calling every five minutes complaining you’re not
home.”

I realised immediately I’d pushed
it too far. She jumped to her feet, eyes blazing

“How dare you?” she demanded. “You
wouldn’t have spoken so personally to Mike and you have absolutely
no right to enquire into my private life.”

She jammed her hands onto her
waist, forcing her figure into a delicious hourglass. Her arse just
begged to have my hands all over it and I don’t know how I
resisted.

“I have every right to ask,” I
said. “If we’re working together, I can’t have you distracted.”
Even though she was the biggest distraction I’d come across in a
very long time.

“Then I could say the same.” She
did a double take, her fury showing no signs of cooling. “This is
the biggest case of my career. I could make partner off the back of
it. How do I know your romantic entanglements aren’t going to get
in the way.”

“What?”

“For all I know your wife/
girlfriend/ significant other – delete as appropriate – might not
like you working with me.” She stared me down. “I don’t want to be
thrown off this case because another woman can’t cope with her
jealousy.”

“Jealousy?” I frowned. “Why would
she be jealous?”

“Because, as you’ve just said,
we’ll be spending long hours together. Working late into the night.
Possibly weekends. Cases like this can get intense.”

“Are you saying you won’t be able
to control yourself?” It was a cheap shot but I couldn’t
resist.

Her chest heaved with fury. “Don’t
flatter yourself. I have one golden rule – I don’t play close to
home. You’d be off limits even if I did find you attractive.”

So much for my tender male ego,
trampled underfoot by those high, patent shoes. In the spirit of
conciliation, I decided to be frank.

“There is no wife/ girlfriend/
significant other,” I said. “No one to get jealous of me working
late into the night with a beautiful woman.”

I assumed she’d accept the
compliment gracefully but it fanned the flames of her anger. She
launched another attack.

“If this case weren’t so
important to me, I’d walk out of here right now and report you to
the Bar Standards Board,” she raged. “It’s highly unprofessional of
you to make such personal remarks. It’s intimidating, sexist and
not a little childish. I’m here to work, not flirt and massage your
ego.”

Thank God I was sitting down when
she let loose this tirade and my groin was hidden by the desk. This
woman was a sexual time bomb primed to explode. My cock stood to
attention and saluted at the thought of taming that temper. It
would be like bedding a tigress – all sharp claws, pent-up energy
and a fight for domination.

Unprofessional or not, the desire
to fuck her intensified, even if it was a lost cause.

“In which case I owe you an
apology,” I said, surprising myself. I didn’t make a habit of
saying sorry, but then I was so rarely in the wrong. “I’ve
overstepped professional boundaries. It won’t happen again.”